Message in a Bottle - Nicholas Sparks [74]
“They’re beautiful. How did you know I loved roses?”
“I didn’t, but I’ve never heard of a woman who didn’t, so I took a chance.”
She smiled. “So you send lots of women roses?”
“Millions. I have a lot of fans. Dive instructors are almost like movie stars, you know.”
“They are, huh?”
“You mean you didn’t know? And here I thought you were just another groupie.”
She laughed. “Thanks a lot.”
“Sure. Did anyone ask who they were from?”
She smiled. “Of course.”
“I hope you said good things.”
“I did. I told them you were sixty-eight and fat, with a horrible lisp that made it impossible to understand you. But since you were so pitiful, I went ahead and had lunch with you. And now, unfortunately, you’re stalking me.”
“Hey, that hurts,” he said. He paused. “So… I hope the roses will remind you that I’m thinking about you.”
“They might,” she said coyly.
“Well, I am thinking about you and I don’t want you to forget it.”
She glanced at the roses. “Ditto,” she said quietly.
After they had hung up, Theresa sat quietly for a moment, reaching for the card again. She read it once more, and this time, instead of putting it back with the flowers, she placed it in her purse for safekeeping. Knowing this crowd, she was sure someone would read it when she wasn’t looking.
“So, what’s he like?”
Deanna sat across from Theresa at the table in the restaurant. Theresa handed Deanna the pictures from her vacation.
“I don’t know where to start.”
Staring at a picture of Garrett and Theresa on the beach, Deanna spoke without looking at her.
“Start at the beginning. I don’t want to miss a thing.”
Since Theresa had already told her about meeting Garrett at the docks, she picked up her story from the evening they spent sailing. She told Deanna how she had purposely left her jacket on board as an excuse to see him again—to which Deanna replied, “Marvelous!”—moving on to their lunch the next day and finally to their dinner. Recapping the final four days they spent together, she left very little out as Deanna listened with rapt attention.
“It sounds like you had a wonderful time,” Deanna said, smiling like a proud mother.
“I did. It was one of the best weeks I’ve ever spent. It’s just that…”
“What?”
It took a moment for her to answer. “Well, Garrett said something toward the end that got me wondering where this whole thing was going to go from here.”
“What did he say?”
“It wasn’t just what he said, but how he said it. He sounded as if he weren’t sure he wanted us to see each other again.”
“I thought you said that you were going down to Wilmington again in a couple of weeks.”
“I am.”
“Then what’s the problem?”
She fidgeted, trying to collect her thoughts. “Well, he’s still struggling with Catherine and… and I’m not exactly sure whether he’ll ever get over it.”
Deanna laughed suddenly.
“What’s so funny?” Theresa asked, startled.
“You are, Theresa. What did you expect? You knew he was still struggling with Catherine before you went down there. Remember, it was his ‘undying’ love that you found so attractive in the first place. Did you think that he’d completely get over Catherine in a couple of days, just because you two hit it off so well?”
Theresa looked sheepish and Deanna laughed again.
“You did, didn’t you? That’s exactly what you thought.”
“Deanna, you weren’t there…. You don’t know how right everything seemed between us, up until the last night.”
Deanna’s voice softened. “Theresa, I know there’s a part of you that believes you can change someone, but the reality is that you can’t. You can change yourself, and Garrett can change himself, but you can’t do it for him.”
“I know that—”
“But you don’t,” Deanna said, gently cutting her off. “Or if you do, you don’t want to see it that way. Your vision, as they say, has become clouded.”
Theresa thought for a moment about what she’d said.
“Let’s take an objective look at what happened with Garrett, shall we?” Deanna asked.
Theresa nodded.
“Though you knew something about Garrett, he knew absolutely